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Eating My Feelings: How to End Your Disney Vacation

Monorail Over Epcot – How to End Your Disney Vacation

Welcome to the next stop on Magical Blogorail Green. Today we are discussing the best ways to end a Disney vacation.

Leaving Walt Disney World is never easy. Trust me, I’d know… When to comes to crying quietly and discretely at the back of the Magic Express bus, I’m a pro. I may be in my early (mid) 30’s, but I just find saying goodbye to be one of the most difficult parts of our vacation, to a point where I used to start my last day with that feeling of impending doom.

To help ease that pain, I turned to two of my favorite things… Lasting traditions and food. The mom in me loves traditions. They’re something dependable, that you look forward to. The person in me who likes eating likes food. Win-win!

Our final park of choice? Epcot. It’s our favorite park and it has lots of food… It only makes sense we’d spend our time there.

I tend to walk through like George Bailey at the end of “It’s a Wonderful Life.” “Goodbye Soarin!” “Goodbye Club Cool!” “Goodbye Japan Pavilion!” We want to see all of our favorites and get our fill before we leave.

The Fountain of Nations – How to End your Disney Vacation

Generally, our first stop is Club Cool. I can’t explain it… The allure of free soda in a potpourri of flavors, it just appeals to me. I need my last fix of sticky floors, sparkle, thumping club music, and whatever soda is my passion for that trip (China Smart Melon, I still miss you). From there to The Land Pavilion, the home of one of the best smells anywhere in the world. Disney, please bottle and sell whatever it is you use to make that building smell so good? After going through Living with The Land (I love that ride, don’t judge) and crying my way through Soarin’ one more time, we stop at Sunshine Seasons for another snack: the Strawberry Shortcake. It’s amazing. Hey, if my husband gets two bean burritos that are the size of my forearm, I can get a slice of cake.

From there, it’s our last trip around the world, starting with our traditional viewing of “Captain Eo” and ending usually somewhere around the Japan Pavilion, where I impulse buy everything I’d been staring at all week but insisted I didn’t need, but now have to have because I may never see it again. Thanks to those last minute feelings of panic, I’ve ended up with everything from a kimono I impulse bought at the register (bet you didn’t know you could do that, did you?) to bento boxes to about $15 of Hi-Chews. It’s always fun unpacking when I get home and asking myself why I bought what I bought…

Candied Strawberries – How to End Your Disney Vacation

When we leave during the Food and Wine Festival or the Flower and Garden Festival, just give ourselves completely over to gluttony. I still remember the trip where we ate pretty much everything in sight. Dole Whips with rum, Nudel Gratin, Candied Strawberries, Sausage and Polenta, Green Tea Ice Cream, Cheese Soup… Man, was that an uncomfortable plane ride home.

With our arms full of impulse buys from Japan and our stomachs full of food that probably nobody should ever try to eat all in one sitting, we (and by we, me) head to the front gates of Epcot and tearfully walk through the turnstiles. That last glimpse of Spaceship Earth is always a killer for me. We head back to Pop and wait for the Magic Express to bring us back to reality. The longest and worst bus ride in the world.

After we go back to the gift shop and get armloads of cookies and candy, of course. I mean, you have to have something to snack on when you’re on the plane… Let’s be real here, it’s a long flight and I get hungry.